Help please! Re: learning to Scuba dive at CN

Hi everyone,

I really hope someone can help with this as I can't seem to get all the info from previous posts.

My partner & I are getting married at CN in Nov and can't wait!

We are staying for two weeks and whilst there, we would be interested in getting certified for Scuba diving so we can make use of the free diving as part of the All Inc package. We have done a practice dive in a pool before and both liked it. We have also travelled to the Red Sea and the Maldives and were frustrated that we couldn't dive there so it's now or never!

My questions are as follows:

- If we do the theory there, do you have to sit in a classroom and if so for how many hours? If you can study for it whilst sitting on the beach, how long is this likely to take? We are considering doing the theory before we go so this saves precious holiday time, any thoughts?

- If we do the theory before we go, how does this work? What docs do we need to bring and can we start learning the practical side straight away?

- I read on the Couples website somewhere that you can now do online courses at CSA - waht does this mean and is this not possible at CN?

- Please can someone go through the process for getting qualified including if we do the theory there and if we do it beforehand i.e - time it takes, how many dives, how much will it take out of our holiday and costs involved?

Sorry for all the questions but we are thinking that this would be a really special thing for us to do and a great achievement but obviously don't want it to take over our entire stay/honeymoon.

scuba certify

You should definitely do your book or resource work before you get to the resort. They will take you on your required dives when you arrive to complete your open water certification. That is what I did last year. The dives are great and the divemasters very patient and very competent. It is also possible to do the book part of the course online. But you really want to spend all your time diving once you get there so it is really best in my opinion to do course work before you get there. Good luck. You will love it.

I got certified while at CSA so CN may be a little different. I did everything at the resort. The study time is done at your own pace, I just had to finish the book and take the test before I left. It took several hours and I did it in my room and on the beach. The book makes it easy to learn and it has frequent quizzes and tests so you can see how you are doing. Because you will be there for 2 weeks, it should be no problem.

For Open Water Certification it takes 2 pool skill sessions and 4 dives. That can be done in 2 days if you spend most of the day on it and pick up the skills quickly. One pool session and 2 dives per day. You don't have to do it that fast. I statrted on Sunday, completed my dives Wed and took the test Thursday.

I will say that it worked for me to be studying the book bit by bit each day because I got to practice what I was learning right away. If you do the theory ahead of time it will be more of an academic pursuit then an experiential one.

Hi Susieboouk, I completed my OW Padi certification in CN in April 09 the total cost was $365. After the inital 'taster' dive I was hooked, so decided to go for my PADI starting the following day. This started with 10minutes floating in the test pool and you perform some other safety manouvers then out on the boat for the rest finishing with a 50metre open swim back to shore. After was the theory part I spent 2hours in my room doing the theory, but that was only because of the 90+degree temp on the beach, with aircon in the room no contest.., the theory was pretty straightforward the trainers give you a book for reference and ask to return with it completed the next day, once handed in I returned a couple hours later and they said I had passed, I completed my total course over 2 days but only taking approx 3-4hrs per day max, it was definately worthwhile as once qualified I could dive twice a day and no extra costs involved. It was absolutely fantastic, also the 'Night Dive' is a must do. My instructor was Dive Master 'SUGAR', he is a cool guy very nice and extremely helpful, good luck and say hi to Sugar for me (Kevin from the UK)...if you have any further questions please let me know.

Sorry forgot to mention 'Congratulations' on the forthcoming wedding, my wife and I met a couple who also got married in CN and they invited us along, it was very romantic and a great place to get 'hitched'. Good luck to you both.

Go to the PADI web site to see what courses are available. You are probably talking about the PADI Open water diver certification. You have three choices. (1.) Take the entire course at home which includes classroom and 4 pool dives and 4 open water dives. (2) take the class room and pool dives at home and take the open water dives at CN via the open water referral. The open water referral will take two mornings at CN (3) take the entire course at CN. You will spend part of several days in the course.

I did the classroom and pool dive at home through a local dive shop and got an ope water referral which I completed in Negril. This is highly recommended since you do not have to spend most of your vacation time in scuba class and you do not have to dive in cold water at home (I am from Oregon). This option does cost more.

Good news is that you will get certified in the first couple of days at CN and then you can go on Certified dives twice a day for the rest of the week.

Good luck and by the way we will be at CN Nov 27 to Dec 5th and I will be diving most days. Lee

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding! You will have a great time at CN, which is where we were wed last December. The wedding coordinator Giselle is a wonderful treasure. Relax and enjoy!

Regarding dive instruction -- You do not have to sit in a classroom. I did my bookwork at the beach. The PADI website allows has information on pre-work, as Linda and Lee stated. That would be more efficient, but it wasn't available when we were certified.

Instructors at CN are Sugar, Craig and Richard. We love the CN Dive Family.